Earthview: Looking Down at Ourselves

Fig. 3. H. Anderson Turner III, performance from Poking at the Environmental Fire, sculpture /performance, 1993. In the performance (1 July 1993) the artist carefully removed a mock river of broken alcohol bottles and other debris that he had installed in a streamside area in the Colorado Rockies. of making that art may not be environmentally sound. "Environmentalism" is a concern for the earth and the impact humans and animals have upon it-like Newton's third law of motion, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction . Environmentalists battle the adverse impact of actions and reactions as they pertain to the earth by actively protesting, writing and informing people about the effects they and others have on the planet. Environmental art in which artists seek to enlighten others about key issues is an offshoot of these concerns. Unfortunately, there is a contradiction hidden in the creation of the physical artwork. For example, a sculptor may choose to clear an area of forest to display a piece, but the clearing, the piece and the material the piece is made of all have some kind of impact. So environmental artists are forced to compromise some of their feelings for the sake of their work. In the summer of 1993, I completed a site-specific sculpture/performance piece (Fig. 3) at the Deep Creek School in Telluride, Colorado. The idea of the work was to create a permanent functional site that would also be a reaction to the advantages and disadvantages of having a school in the wilderness . The major problem in creating the work wasjustifying what I was doing to the land. For example, one element of my piece was a mock river of broken alcohol bottles. What makes art so special that an artist can forget or lay aside convictions? Thejustification for what I did came from the message I tried to convey. I believe we, as human animals, have an unavoidable effect on the earth. We exist , and therefore we have an impact. If I had not accepted the adverse effects of parts of the piece as necessary, I would have created nothing. Environmental artists know what kind of impact they have when they create a piece. They accept that there is some contradiction in the creation of their work. But, when the survival of the planet is at stake, the message that the work carries is what is important. Editor's Note The installation/performance described in Poking at theEnvironmentalFirewas situated in an arena constructed in a wooded streamside site. In addition to the river of broken alcohol bottles, the work included rows of intact alcohol bottles and areas painted with ominous, orange surveyor's paint. The performance (Fig. 3) took place on 1 July 1993 and consisted of the artist removing the bottles, expurgating the remnants of the surveyor 's paint and tediously sifting through the ground to remove the fragments of glass. EARTHVIEW: LOOKING DOWN AT OURSELVES John D. Mathews, Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A. E-mail: . Charles Garoian, School ofVisual Arts, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A. We propose the space art project Earthview, an integrative conceptual art project of massive scale and complexity, which is about how we look at ourselves -about seeing ourselves in the unfamiliar context of looking down at ourselves from up high. "Real-time" video images from various Earth-orbiting satellites and solar-system probes, as well as ultimately the moon, will be obtained and distributed to much of the world's population via cable and broadcast television channels. Earthviewwill allow us to see ourselves from a new, ever-changing yet ever-fixed perspective , and to develop new words and paradigms to describe ourselves and our context. Art and science have challenged us to view and experience phenomena differently , to adopt different and new perspectives, and to look to the future. Artists and scientists have always adopted or developed the techniques or technologies needed to form images they seek to communicate. While these images are often deeply feIt and highly personal, their content may form "words" or paradigms that impact society as a whole...